This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-292290, filed Sep. 25, 2001, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for settling accounts in commercial transaction between a shop and any customer visiting the shop. The apparatus and method are designed to settle accounts, whereby the customer need not pay in cash for the goods he or she buys at the shop. More specifically, the data necessary to settle accounts is inputted from the customer""s portable device into the apparatus, and the apparatus settles account in accordance with the data input. The portable device can function as a short-range radio communication terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, portable devices that can perform short-range radio communication are put on the market, one after another. The aerial power for short-range radio communication is limited to a prescribed value or less. Any person needs no license to use radio wave for short-range radio communication. For example, Bluetooth, which is an interface standard for radio communication over a short-range of about 10 m, is applied to portable devices such as mobile telephones.
A mobile telephone that can perform short-range radio communication may hold electronic money. If so, it can be used to settle accounts in any shop that has a point-of-sales (POS) terminal. In this case, the POS terminal receives some of the electronic money from the mobile telephone by virtue of the short-range radio communication. Thus, the accounts are settled in the shop.
The POS terminal functions as a base station in the short-range radio communication. The POS terminal determines whether any mobile telephone that can communicate with it exists in the vicinity. When a customer carrying a mobile telephone enters the shop, the mobile telephone is connected by the short-range radio to the POS terminal. In the shop, the mobile telephone functions as a mobile station in the short-range radio communication. Thus, when customers carrying a mobile telephone each step into the shop, the POS terminal detects the mobile telephones, one after another.
Now that the POS terminal has detected several mobile telephones, the operator of the POS terminal needs to identify one of them as the mobile telephone of the customer with whom the operator has to settle accounts. Two methods are available to identify the mobile telephone.
In the first method, the operator asks the customer about the number of the mobile telephone the customer is carrying for account. On the other hand, the phone numbers of the detected mobile telephones in the shop have been transmitted to the POS terminal by the short-range radio. Accordingly, the operator can identify the payer""s mobile telephone with the phone number told by the customer.
In the second method, the area in which the POS terminal can communicate with mobile telephones by the short-range radio is reduced so that the POS terminal detects only one mobile telephone at a time. The area of the communication is limited to the smaller area around the POS terminal. The smaller area is substantially on the surface of the POS terminal. The customer holds the mobile telephone out into the area and puts the data (e.g., ID number) in it. The inputted data is transmitted to the POS terminal by shot-range radio and use for settling accounts.
The first method is not practical, however. The telephone number that the customer tells the operator may be known to some others who are undesirable for the customer. Therefore, most customers hesitate to tell their phone numbers to the operator around the POS terminal. Besides, the necessity of asking the customer about the telephone number complicates the procedure for settling accounts.
The second method is not practical, too. Several customers carrying the mobile telephone get together at the POS terminal for settling accounts. The area in which the POS terminal detects only one of the mobile telephones must be determined from the distance between any two adjacent customers around the POS terminal. The distance tends to change at frequently intervals. The fewer the customers at the POS terminal, the longer the distance is. It is difficult to set an appropriate area on the occasion of settling accounts with the customer. If the area set is very small, any customer who wants to settle accounts needs to take an unnatural position to bring his or her mobile telephone into the area while settling.
An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for settling accounts which can identify, among portable devices capable of performing short-range radio communication, some portable devices held by persons who wish to settle accounts, which can receive data transmitted from the portable devices identified, and which can settle account in accordance with the data received by virtue of the short-range radio communication.
According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for settling accounts, which comprises: short-range communications means for storing data necessary for settling accounts for a transaction and designed to perform short-range radio communication with at least one portable device which is assigned with a radio communication address for the short-range radio communication; an antenna which radiates and catch radio waves to help the short-range communications means to perform the short-range radio communication; range-controlling means for setting the range of the short-range radio communication to a first communication range lying near the antenna or a second communication range broader than the first communication range; address-acquiring means for acquiring the radio communication address from said at least one portable device approaching the antenna, after the range-controlling means has set the range of the short-range radio communication to the first communication range; range-expanding means for causing the range-controlling means to expand the range of the short-range radio communication to the second communication range when the address-acquiring means acquires the radio communication address from said at least one portable device; data-receiving means for receiving the data necessary for settling accounts, from said at least one portable device by virtue of the short-range radio communication after the range-expanding means has caused the range-controlling means to expand the range of the short-range radio communication; and account-settling means for settling accounts for the transaction on the basis of the data that the data-receiving means has received.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.